(CNN) -– Gloria Cain, the wife of GOP presidential contender Herman Cain, said in an interview Monday she had been aware of past sexual harassment allegations against her husband, but never believed they were true.

“They were unfounded, and that was the end of that,” Gloria Cain said on the Fox News show “On the Record w/ Greta van Susteren.”FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta turned up the heat on Congress Monday, warning that looming automatic budget cuts would undermine national security and set off a financial chain reaction from the hallways of the Pentagon, to the battlefields of Afghanistan, to civilian assembly lines.

The Pentagon already is digesting $450 billion of reductions over the next decade but now fears an additional $600 billion or more may be imminent if Congress cannot reach a deal on spending.

(CNN) - They have been meeting for two months, poring over concepts and ideas already hashed out by three other groups over the past year.

But nine days before their deadline, members of the so-called congressional "super committee" created to forge a deficit reduction deal indicated Sunday that they remain hung up on basic issues of tax and entitlement reform that have previously stymied agreement.

(CNN) - Sen. John McCain said Monday he was "disappointed" that some candidates vying for the GOP presidential nomination vocally support waterboarding as a technique for interrogating suspected terrorists.

"Ask any military lawyer, ask any person who knows about the Geneva conventions that we're signatories to. We actually prosecuted Japanese war criminals specifically for the act of waterboarding against Americans," McCain said on CNN's "John King, USA."FULL POST

(CNN) - Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain took a moment Monday to clarify his position on Libya: He needs more information.

After an uncomfortable eight-second pause to collect his thoughts, the GOP contender explained that he would need to know more before he could unequivocally agree or disagree with President Barack Obama's actions in the conflicted country.FULL POST

(CNN) - As Newt Gingrich's poll numbers rise, his campaign says his fundraising is also seeing a spike.

Gingrich's organization tells CNN it raised more than $3 million since October 1, with most of the money coming from online donations. That's more than three times the amount Gingrich raised in the entire third fundraising quarter of 2011, when he pulled in just over $800,000.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - It's the biggest headline in a national poll full of headlines: Newt Gingrich has surged and is now basically tied with Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday, 24% of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say Romney is their most likely choice for their party's presidential nominee with Gingrich at 22%. Romney's 2-point advantage is well within the survey's sampling error.FULL POST

(CNN) - Supporters of Jon Huntsman are hitting television airwaves in New Hampshire Tuesday, asking a question they hope many voters will utter as they watch the spot: "Why haven't we heard of this guy?"

The one-minute ad, called "Someone," is financed by Our Destiny PAC, a group created to help elect Huntsman president. A spokesman for the group described the buy as "substantial."FULL POST